Drawer suspension means



1967 w. Y. ANDERSON 3,333,914

' DRAWER SUSPENSION MEANS Filed Feb. 5, 1965 wk INVENTOR.

Mam/W k4meesan/ 1 76.! BY

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,333,914 DRAWER SUSPENSION MEANS William Y. Anderson, Grand Rapids, Mich., assignor to Stow & Davis Furniture Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Filed Feb. 3, 1965, Ser. No. 429,973 8 Claims. (Cl. 312341) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A glide construction for guiding and supporting drawers in article of furniture, in which the glide is an elongated block having a pair of drawer-supporting surfaces extending over its length. 'The first of these surfaces is generally horizontal, whereas the second is at an angle to the vertical, extending upwardly and outwardly from the horizontal surface and communicating therewith by a smoothly curved interconnection. The glide construction is preferably of wood, and made from two symmetrical wooden portions whose grain runs in opposite directions; also, these two portions are securely joined together with a cross-ply of veneer between them to produce a single structure of exceedingly high strength.

This invention relates to drawer suspension means, and more particularly to a new and unique glide or runner for both supporting and guiding the movement of drawers and the like within drawer openings in furniture and other cabinetry.

In the past, a great variety of supporting and guiding means for drawers have been devised and are now wellknown. Requirements for truly satisfactory guides are that they must firmly and fixedly support the weight of the drawer and all of its contents, and they must also guide the drawer as it is repeatedly drawn outward and thrust back into its drawer opening. Such guides should support the drawer so that there are no obviously uneven or excessive spaces between the front of the drawer and its surrounding cabinet surfaces. The guides must also afford a smooth withdrawal movement to a drawer.

In more recent times, a great many mechanical contrivances have become known in the furniture-making art to take the place of the traditional guide mechanisms, which were made of wood. The mechanical devices had the advantage of eliminating all sticking of the drawers in hot and humid weather, which was a chronic problem with the traditional wooden guides. The endurance and repeatability of the mechanical devices was good, and they were cheaper in the long run to use in manufacturing processes, since they were made by automated mass-production methods and were easily installed, eliminating the laborious hand fitting previously required for individually constructed wooden guides.

In the manufacture of fine wood furniture, such as for example, a high-quality desk or other like piece, mechanical or metal drawer guiding and supporting apparatus is completely undesirable. There are certain standards of appearance and performance which have long since become attached to quality furniture which are not upheld by such metallic accessories. For example, the mechanical guides make a harsh metallic rumbling noise as the drawer is withdrawn from its opening. Furthermore, the movement of the drawer as it is withdrawn from its opening usually has a characteristic bump or vibration, and the feel is a cold, unyielding mechanical one.

In contradistinction to these undesirable aspects, a fine wooden desk should have drawers which withdraw almost noiselessly. Their movement should be absolutely smooth, and there should be a warm, smooth, velvety feel to the hand which opens and closes such a drawer. Such attri- 3,333,914 Patented Aug. 1, 1967 butes as these are felt by craftsmen in the furniture industry to be obtainable only by a wood-to-wood contact between the drawer and its guiding means.

As previously stated, however, wooden drawer guides have in the past been the cause of considerable difiiculty. Basically, this difficulty is caused by the characteristic tendency of wooden drawers to expand and swell under humid weather conditions, and to contract and shrink under dry conditions. Being well aware of this, cabinet makers and other like artisans had to carefully shape the wooden drawers and their guiding and supporting members so as to accommodate the changes in the effective widths of the drawer by arriving at the best all-around compromise in related size. This meant that in humid weather, the wooden drawers would stick and bind in a most annoying manner, whereas in dry weather the drawers would fit loosely within the drawer opening, giving the appearance of careless and sloppy workmanship. As a result of these compounded difiiculties, makers of wooden desks and other furniture have slowly been drawn into the use of metal hardware for their drawers, since the limitations involved in its usage were less undesirable than those involved in the wooden counterparts.

The present invention has as its major objective the provision of a drawer suspension means which provides the desired wood-to-wood contact between the drawer and its support, in order to provide the desired silent and smooth operation, and yet which fully accommodate the normal expansion and contraction of wooden drawers in a unique manner whereby the drawers neither bind nor become loose within the drawer opening.

Another important objective of the present invention is to provide a drawer suspension means of the nature indicated, which includes further a unique form of contact between the drawer and its supporting and guiding means.

Still another important objective of the present invention is to provide a wooden drawer supporting guiding apparatus having a unique configuration and also having a unique form of construction, whereby the dimensional stability and the strength of the support means is considerably increased.

These and other objects attained by the present invention, as well as other advantages enjoyed through its usage, will become increasingly apparent upon consideration of the following specification and its appended claims, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying illustrative drawings setting forth a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front elevational view of an illustrative desk pedestal, showing the inventive drawer support means as the same are actually used; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a single support means, showing further details of its configuration.

Stated briefly, the present invention provides a wooden glide block for guiding and supporting drawers within furniture or cabinet drawer openings. The glide block has a vertically inclined drawer-engaging surface which supports and guides the drawer at the lower edges of its opposite sides. The glide also preferably has a substantially horizontal drawer-engaging surface which is joined to the said inclined surface by a smoothly curved interconnection. In normal usage, a pair of the glide blocks are attached to opposite sides of a drawer opening. The drawer is normally supported for the most part upon the horizontal supporting surface, partially engaging the curved interconnection. When the drawer expands due to temperature and humidity considerations, and accordingly, becomes effectively wider than it was before, its side edges move outward upon the curved interconnection noted. Should expansion continue, the drawer raises itself slightly by assuming a new supporting position upon the inclined surface of the glide. Thus, the drawer is free to expand in its normal manner, and regardless of the particular degree of expansion, the supporting contact between drawer and glide always remains approximately the same. Consequently, the drawer never sticks by becoming wedged between the sides of the drawer opening, and yet it is always firmly mounted within the opening and there never is an excessive clearance between the two. This lends the drawer a constant smooth and silent operation which is not at all disturbed by the expansion and contraction of the drawer. Structurally, the glide is preferably formed from two symmetrical wooden portions whose grains run in opposite directions. These two portions are securely joined together with a cross-ply of veneer between them to produce a single structure of exceeding high strength.

Referring now in more detail to the drawings, in FIG. 1 an illustrative desk pedestal is depicted to show a typical environment for the novel drawer glide of the present invention. Within the pedestal 10 are a pair of drawers 12 and 14, whose front or outer panel has been removed in order to show the interior of the drawer and pedestal. The drawers 12 and 14 are supported at their lower side edges on two pairs of the drawer glides of this invention. The lower pair of glides is designated 16 and 18, while the upper pair is designated 20 and 22. It is to be noted that the upper pair of glides 20 and 22 have a compound or double construction, whereas the lower pair of glides 16 and 18 have a single construction. The single construction is observahly one-half of the symmetrical compound or double structure. This difference in construction will be consequently explained in greater detail, and is merely noted at this point.

In FIG. 2, an illustrative compound glide is shown at 24, it being understood that this exemplifies glides 20 and 22 of FIG. 1. Glide 24 is clearly seen to possess a vertically inclined surface 26, a substantially horizontal surface 28, and a smoothly curved interconnection 30 which joins the two surfaces 26 and 28. The glide block 24 is, as the drawing indicates, made from wood (preferably a strong construction wood such as white oak or the like), and the surfaces and curved interconnection may be formed in a single shaping operation.

It is to be noted that the compound glide 24 includes a bottom half which is essentially identical with the top half just described. There is one significant difference, however, and that is that the grain of the one half or section of the glide is preferably oriented in a direction opposite to the grain of the other section. Furthermore, in the most preferred embodiment of the invention, between the two sections of layer of a strong veneer (again, preferably oak) is interposed, whose grain is oriented to be cross-plied relative to the longitudinal direction of the grain of the upper and lower sections. The three portions which form a compound glide are glued together in a known manner, and thus form a laminated structure of very high strength and very good dimensional stability.

The single glide constructions designated 16 and 18 in FIG. 1 are mounted, as the drawing indicates, in the two opposite lower corners of the pedestal 10. Consequently, the bot-tom of the pedestal supports the Weight of the lower drawer 12, and the glides 16 and 18 actually serve more of a guiding function than a supporting one. Thus, the lowermost glides need not have the high strength that is required of guides positioned above them in the drawer opening, which merely attach to the sides of the drawer opening and must themselves support the entire weight of the drawer (such as 14), as well as guide it as it is withdrawn from and inserted back into the drawer opening. Accordingly, the lower glides may be of the single construction shown, while pairs of glides above these should have the double, or compound structure shown.

The actual structure and form of my novel drawer supporting means has now been clearly described. In view of the nature of the device, its manner of assembly within the cabinet drawer should be quite clear, as should the manner in which they operate in conjunction with drawer movement. This operation is shown in FIG. 1, where it will be seen that the lower drawer 12 occupies the normal position upon its supporting glides 16 and 18. That is, the lower edges of the drawer partially engage the curved interconnection between the horizontal and inclined drawer-supporting surfaces on the glides, while the drawer is mainly supported upon the horizontal surfaces. In this position, the drawer 12 may be withdrawn smoothly from the drawer opening in pedestal 10 with the desired wood-to-wood contact, and without any excess clearance between the drawer and its supports, which might permit cocking or lateral movements of the drawer.

On the other hand, when the drawer effectively widens due to expansion, the lower edges of the drawer move outward, forcing the entire drawer to move upward upon the inclined surfaces of the glides, as shown by the position of the drawer 14 in FIG. 1. In this position, note that the drawer 14 has approximately the same supporting line contact between its glides 20 and 22 as did drawer 12 between glides 16 and 18. Thus, not only will expanded drawer 14 not stick or bind within the drawer opening, it also will pull outward with very nearly the Same smooth and noiseless operation as will the drawer 12 in its more normal position. Of course, if climatic conditions change so that drawer 14 contracts back into its normal position, it will merely assume the position shown for drawer 12, and its operation will not be significantly or even noticeably changed, either during its expansion or contraction, or at either extreme final condition. Thus, it will be seen that the inclined surfaces on a pair of opposing glides actually provide an entire series of drawerengaging surfaces positioned at a plurality of different and increasing distances a part from each other, upon which drawers of differing widths may be supported with equal ease and with consistently satisfactory operation of the drawers.

There is one final aspect of the invention which should be noted, and that is that the lower edges of the drawers which engage the glides may be formed to have a curvature which complements and closely approximates that of the curved interconnection on the glides. If this construction be followed, the smoothness with which the edge of the drawer traverses the curved interconnection on the glide during expansion of the drawer is somewhat enhanced, and the ultimate in smooth operation is obtained.

While I have sought to disclose and describe a single preferred-embodiment of the current invention throughout this specification, it should be understood that certain modifications and alterations in structure may occur to those skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with the spirit of the invention as taught herein. Such modifications and alterations as embody the spirit of the invention and are based upon its inventive concept are deemed by me to be part of the invention, unless the appended claims by their language expressly state otherwise.

I claim:

1. Means for guiding and supporting drawers and the like, comprising: means mountable at opposite sides of a drawer opening for supporting at each of its sides a drawer insertable within said opening; said means each having a pair of drawer-engaging surface portions disposed generally opposite of and spaced apart from a like surface portion on the opposite means; said opposite surface portions positioned at a plurality of different and increasing distances apart from each other; an intermediate and generally average such distance corresponding to the normal width of a given drawer to be supported upon said means; and said oppositely-disposed surface portions thereby being arranged to support drawers thereupon whose normal width varies in actual use due to lateral expansion and contraction, by supporting such drawer on different of said surface portions as the drawer expands and contracts.

2. Means for guiding and supporting drawers and the like, comprising: glide blocks mountable at opposite sides of a drawer opening for supporting at each of its sides a drawer insertable within said opening; said glide blocks each having an inclined drawer-supporting portion which accommodates lateral expansion of the drawer by supporting the same at different and increasingly elevated vertical positions thereupon, whereby said drawer always draws smoothly and easily and the need for excessive clearance between drawer and opening is eliminated.

3. Means for guiding and supporting drawers and the like, comprising: glide blocks mountable at opposite sides of a drawer opening for supporting at each of its sides a drawer insertable within said opening; said glide blocks each having a first essentially horizontal drawer-supporting portion and a second drawer-supporting portion inclined from said first portion; said two supporting portions being joined by a smoothly curved interconnection; said curved interconnection and said inclined portion accommodating lateral expansion and contraction of the drawer by supporting the same at different vertical positions thereupon, whereby said drawer always draws smoothly and easily and the need for excessive clearance between drawer and opening is eliminated.

4. The drawer guiding and supporting means of claim 3, which further includes a drawer having curved portions at each of its said sides for at least partially complementary contact with said curved interconnection of the said two drawer-supporting surfaces.

5. Means for guiding and supporting wooden drawers upon a wood-to-wood drawing contact, comprising: wooden glide blocks mountable at opposite sides of a drawer opening for supporting at each of its sides a drawer insertable within said opening; said glide blocks each having an inclined drawer-supporting portion which accommodates lateral expansion and contraction of the drawer by supporting the same at diiferent vertical positions upon said inclined supporting portion, whereby said drawer always draws smoothly and easily upon said wood-towood contact of drawer and glide block and the need for excessive clearance between drawer and opening is eliminated; each of said wooden glide blocks having at least two longitudinal sections, at least one such section being of a size sufficient to provide substantially all of said inclined portion, and said two sections being joined so that the grain of each section opposes that of the other, whereby the strength of the glides is greatly increased.

6. Means for guiding and supporting wooden drawers upon a wood-to-wood drawing contact, comprising: wooden glide blocks mountable at opposite sides of a drawer opening for supporting at each of its sides a drawer insertable within said opening; said glide blocks each having a first essentially horizontal drawer-supporting portion and a second drawer-supporting portion inclined from said first portion; said two supporting portions being joined by a smoothly curved interconnection; said curved interconnection and said inclined portion accommodating lateral expansion and contraction of the drawer by supporting the same at different vertical positions thereupon, whereby said drawer always draws smoothly and easily upon said wood-to-wood contact of drawer and glide block, and the need for excessive clearance between drawer and opening is eliminated; and each of said wooden glide blocks having at least two longitudinal sections joined so that the grain of each section opposes that of the other, whereby the strength of the blocks is greatly increased.

7. Means for guiding and supporting wooden drawers upon a wood-to-wood drawing contact, comprising: wooden glide blocks mountable at opposite sides of a drawer opening for supporting at each of its sides a drawer insertable within said opening; said glide blocks each having a first essentially horizontal drawer-supporting portion and a second drawer-supporting portion inclined from said first portion; said two supporting portion being joined by a smoothly curved interconnection; said curved interconnection and said inclined portion accommodating lateral expansion and contraction of the drawer by supporting the same at different vertical positions thereupon, whereby said drawer always draws smoothly and easily upon said wood-to-wood contact of drawer and glide blocks, and the need for excessive clearance between drawer and opening is eliminated; each of said wooden glide blocks being of a laminated construction including at least two longitudinal sections of block and at least one layer of veneer between said two sections; and the grain of each of said sections being arranged to oppose that of the other section, whereby the strength of the blocks is greatly increased.

8. The means for guiding and supporting drawers set forth in claim 5, wherein a layer of veneer which is thin compared to either of said glide block sections is interposed between such sections.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 328,015 10/1885 Davis 312-345 X 426,686 4/1890 Schexikel 312332 X 511,601 12/1893 Estey 312332 X 734,497 7/1903 Anderson 312345 X 1,111,026 9/1914 Kroos 312345 X 1,377,891 5/1921 Knight 52-730 DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner. 

1. MEANS FOR GUIDING AND SUPPORTING DRAWERS AND THE LIKE, COMPRISING: MEANS MOUNTABLE AT OPPOSITE SIDES OF A DRAWER OPENING FOR SUPPORTING AT EACH OF ITS SIDES A DRAWER INSERTABLE WITHIN SAID OPENING; SAID MEANS EACH HAVING A PAIR OF DRAWER-ENGAGING SURFACE PORTIONS DISPOSED GENERALLY OPPOSITE OF AND SPACED APART FROM A LIKE SURFACE PORTION ON THE OPPOSITE MEANS; SAID OPPOSITE SURFACE PORTIONS POSITIONED AT A PLURALITY OF DIFFERENT AND INCREASING DISTANCES APART FROM EACH OTHER; AN INTERMEDIATE AND GENERALLY AVERAGE SUCH DISTANCE CORRESPONDING TO THE NORMAL WIDTH OF A GIVEN DRAWER TO BE SUPPORTED UPON SAID MEANS; AND SAID OPPOSITELY-DISPOSED SURFACE PORTIONS THEREBY BEING ARRANGED TO SUPPORT DRAWERS THEREUPON WHOSE NORMAL WIDTH VARIES IN ACTUAL USE DUE TO LATERAL EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION, BY SUPPORTING SUCH DRAWER ON DIFFERENT OF SAID SURFACE PORTIONS AS THE DRAWER EXPANDS AND CONTRACTS. 